


Perfect Storm

by doublejoint



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:26:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29210328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doublejoint/pseuds/doublejoint
Summary: She cannot look away from him.
Relationships: Ishida Ryuuken/Katagiri Kanae
Kudos: 4
Collections: February Ficlet Challenge 2021: Apocalypse No





	Perfect Storm

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 4 of the February Ficlet Challenge: Storm

The young master is nothing like Kanae had expected. He is formal with her; he is quiet; he is dutiful. He is nothing like his mother, harsh and haughty (though Kanae would say neither of those words aloud, even outside of her presence) or his father, distant but more open, always trying to slip her a piece of candy when he’s home. He reads his books; he draws his bow, and adjusts himself before she can tell him the faults in his stance, in his aim, in his will. It is her duty to protect him and to push him, to ensure he meets his destiny, the best of the best, the finest of the Quincies. 

Kanae thinks, sometimes, she’d do it anyway if it wasn’t her job. She’d have seen him, and without being told, she would have been unable to look away. She’d have been unable to not want.

(To not want what, exactly? That is not something she dares think. The young master’s mother is not psychic, but it’s not her Kanae is afraid of. It’s herself, her own feelings, the ways that no matter how they twist, they’ll end up knotted and unusable, tangled the way the thread of her embroidery always seems to be, as if that betrays her.)

The thunder claps. The young master tenses, smooths the page of his book, and Kanae pretends not to notice. Nor does she acknowledge the lightning strike outside the window, how clearly articulated his stiffening shadow is, or the way the brightness reflects in the lenses of his glasses. Kanae stands.

“I should close the drapes.”

“Please don’t do that on my account.”

“Can it be only for myself?”

She turns to look, and his frown is deeper than usual; she must have spoken too carelessly.

“Young Master, I apologize—”

“Katagiri. It’s fine.” 

(He always uses her surname; they have known each other so long. It’s good to keep the distance, but it feels so much like he’s put up a barrier between them, more obvious and artificial than the one behind which she hides her feelings. But there’s no way through it, no way to pierce it with a word or an arrow, and she shouldn’t want to.)

“If I don’t get used to it, how can I be expected to fight a hollow in worse conditions?”

Again, the thunder rolls, louder; he stares through the window, as if daring the sky to hurt him. Once more, Kanae cannot look away from his face. The lightning strikes illuminating the room, and the young master cannot stop the wince from crumpling his face. Kanae walks past him to the window and shuts the drapes firmly, fully. It will not mute the sound; it will not stop the edges of the lightning flash from bleeding in. But, right now, it is all she can do to alleviate his pain and fear. The room flooded in darkness, and she has disobeyed an order.

“Young master. Please.”

They are both in shadow, and they are alone. In the room, in the house. Even before the next flash of lightning, she can see him bend his head toward her.

“Thank you.”

* * *

Kanae senses the hollow before she sees it; she does not look to see if he has also sensed it. She trusts that he has; he must have. He has the spiritual pressure; he has the training. The thunder comes, almost like an entrance announcement for the hollow as it tears into the riverbank. Each on one side, they unleash their arrows, flocks and flocks cutting into the hollow as it screams. Kanae does not think; she only moves; the rain in her face is no obstacle, and the same must be true of Ryuuken, though his glasses must be splattered with rain. The lightning is not yet so near that they need to draw the hollow away; they have enough time. The hollow splits, finally; it disintegrates into the air; Kanae holds her bow steady. There are no more. The thunder rolls, soft, much softer than the hollow’s noises still ringing in her ears, and Ryuuken stands unflinching on the opposite bank.

The hollow is gone; they have no reason to risk remaining outside this close to the storm. This time, he is not afraid.

* * *

The thunder wakes Kanae in the middle of the night. Bleary-eyed, she sits up; next to her, Ryuuken’s eyes are open. His hair is dishevelled, not neatly in place the way he always ensures it is as soon as he gets up. She is the only one who sees him like this, a little unraveled. 

“You used to be so scared of thunder,” she says.

“Yes,” he says, a little sour, but he knows she doesn’t mean to tease or prod.

She thinks of the drawn drapes and the dark parlor, of the things she’d pushed out of her mind at that time, the feelings she was sure would pull her down somewhere bad. Instead, they’ve ended up here, and at that time, she knows now, he’d felt the same. If he’d kissed her, there in the dark, if he’d crossed that boundary, if she’d allowed it, then--there’s no possibility they’d be here now. She knows that now as well. The only path that could have led them here is this one, full of heartache and denial and regret.

Their curtains are shut. Only a little of the lightning shows. Regardless of the knotted journey, she’s glad of the destination, selfishly so. 

“Kanae—” Ryuuken breaks off as the thunder sounds.

“Yes?”

“I won’t be afraid if I have you.”

Now he’s the one teasing her; it shouldn’t make her blush this much. In the darkness, without his glasses, there’s no way he can really see it, but his hand reaches up to touch her face, the temperature giving it away. 

“Ryuuken.”

She sinks down next to him, her head on his shoulder. The storm will stay a while longer, but there’s no better way to ride it out than with him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
